miércoles, 9 de marzo de 2016

Does shyness inhibit learning?

By Flor de María Vila A.

When we teachers think
of the ideal attitude of students in the classroom, probably the first desire
that comes to our mind is to be blessed with students who are collaborative,
outgoing, and eager to interact with other students, since this way our work will
be easier and the pupils will have more opportunities to learn. But, what about
shy students? Will they have the same chance?

WHAT IS SHYNESS?

There are many
definitions. One of them is Buss´s (1985) who defined shyness as an inhibition
of expected social behavior, together with feelings of tension and awkwardness.
This delineation regards shyness as a social phenomenon, and a form of social
anxiety. Another scholar defines it as an excessive self-focus characterized by
negative self-evaluation which creates discomfort and/or inhibition in social
situations and interferes with pursuing one's interpersonal or professional
goals.

Regarding our everyday
context in classes, we could say that somehow part of our students show these
traits: they are shy students. They are self-conscious and lack confidence when
they must face new or socializing situations or when the focus is placed on
them. They may eventually become socially rejected and subsequently develop low
self-esteem or worsen their current low self-esteem. This is not beneficial for the learning
process at all.

ARE WE REACTING TO THE SYMPTOM OR TO THE
SOURCE?

Shyness has multiple
causes. Some can be handled by teachers; some cannot. With regard to what we,
as teachers, can and should do, we need to be aware of the emotions that are hindering
our students´ full involvement in the learning process. We need to identify what
are those obstacles that do not allow students to take advantage of the
opportunities they have to improve their performance and learning. It is
necessary to identify the barriers that do not match with the way students are
expected to learn.

According to studies,
shyness is not related to intelligence; however, the “display” (evidence) of
their intelligence is expected to show in the classroom in some pre-fixed ways
according to the teaching method used. For instance, many times teachers’ perception
of students who never raise their hands in class is that they are less
competent. Not volunteering themselves to give an answer when the teacher asks
questions to activate previous knowledge may be a symptom stemming from the “source”
of the problem and not the problem itself.
For example, the reason for the scarce or non-existing participation may be that they are afraid of
making a mistake and won´t venture to say anything, even if they know the answer
to the question asked. In that case, we should help them make sure that they have
the right answer before sharing it with the whole class. We can do this when
they work in pairs exchanging their answers. This would create a safer learning
environment and procedure for shy students and would eventually help them gain
confidence and motivate them to try other ways to improve their learning.

Shy students need to
understand that their inhibitions are natural and common and that it is natural
to be exposed in some way when showing evidence of the use of the language; in
the same manner, they should be aware that nothing or nobody is perfect, so
everybody is “allowed” to make mistakes, and they should try again and again
until, with the practice, they improve.

WHICH IS NOT FITTING: YOUR SHY STUDENT OR YOUR
METHOD?

The communicative approach
calls for real-life situations that demand communication. The teacher sets up a
set of circumstances that students are likely to encounter in real life and in
which learners communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics. Students
are expected to interact frequently in order to practice and improve their
performance.

Shy students find it
extremely difficult to overcome the feeling of embarrassment whether because of
low self-esteem or due to their tendency to feel awkward, worried or tense
during social encounters, even if they are simulated. Alternatively, “shy”
students may be just perfectionist students and won´t say a word unless they
feel they are going to sound perfect both phonetically and grammatically. This
last type of “shy” students monitor too much (correct) their utterances before expressing
them.

Shy students will also
learn, but they may take a while to become aware of the importance of using the
language more actively to accelerate their learning. As mentioned before, they
need to be shown that they can do it and will work in a safe environment, an environment
created by the teacher, an environment in which the teacher guides them little
by little using scaffolding strategies to ensure their success.

By all means, teachers
must take into account one of the most important foundations and tenets of
teaching: know your students and be acquainted with their characteristics; even
further, meditate how these individualities match with our teaching and how
both merge to achieve our main goal: students´ language learning.

Have you identified
the shy students in your classroom? Can you describe them for us please?

While you are
delivering your class, what impasses does a student’s shyness introduce at the
moment of developing the lesson? What actions can be
helpful to solve such impasses?

What should never be
done in these cases?

Further information

Kalustskaya, Irina N y otros (2014)Shy children in the classroom: From research to
educational practice.Translational Issues in Psychological Science,
Vol 1(2), Jun, 2015. Special Issue: How Psychological Science Can Help Improve
Our Classrooms. pp. 149-157.

Flor de María Vila. M.A. in
Cognition, Learning and Development from PUCP, B.A. in Education with a
major in English Teaching. Ms. Vila is currently Pedagogic Advisor and Member
of the Research Team at Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad del Pacífico and
Academic Director of International Contacts (test training & foreign
applications advisory). She is official Examiner for several University of
Cambridge tests, freelance consultant with Universidad ESAN, experienced
speaker on diverse English teaching issues for prestigious institutions, and
senior international examinations trainer (GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS).